Wednesday Wisdom – May 21, 2014

This week’s Gospel: John 14:15-21

14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.

14:17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

14:18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.

14:19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.

14:20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

14:21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

~~~

Jean Vanier

Source: Brokenness to Community

People translating the New Testament into the Karre language in equatorial Africa were having difficulty coming up with a word to translate parakletos. How could they describe the Holy Spirit?

Then they noticed porters walking in a line along a path, each carrying a heavy burden—except for one person. That one person was carrying nothing. When they asked why, they learned that the man carrying no burden was expected to help anyone who became too exhausted to carry his own burden. They called him, “The one who falls down beside us.” And that gave the translators their term for parakletos—“The one who falls down beside us.” (as quoted by Sermonwriter.com)